Poetics by Aristotle

​Finally read this classic work; what pushed me to read it was Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, the 3rd part of the book refers to the Poetics and uses Aristotle's language, i.e. recognition and revealing as ethical universal.

Great introduction that contextualizes the Poetics in Aristotle's work, and explains key concepts--the introduction is longer than Aristotle's actual study.

For Aristotle, mimesis/imitation is inherently pleasurable to human beings, so the most important element of tragedy is plot, which is the imitation of an action, with the goal of arousing fear or pity. "The imitation is not just of a complete action, but also of events that evoke fear and pity. These effects occur above all when things come about contrary to expectation but because of one another" (p. 17).

The plot has to be a coherent, spherical (Aristotle doesn't use this word) whole of a certain magnitude, and events must be contained within this whole, so episodic stories are the worst.

Characters cannot be bad, because the audience does not feel pity for bad things that happen to bad people, characters must be admirable but similar to us, so not overly heroic or noble.

Complex plots rely on reversal or recognition or both, while keeping within the logical flow of events in the whole. Good people attempt to make admirable decisions, but their efforts lead unexpectedly to a bad result, because of their ignorance (the state before recognition) that leads to an error, leading to a reversal.

It was only after Aristotle that I began to see the value of plot, the construction of character, and the use of recognition/reversal (recognition is used everywhere). I would always engage in literature, film etc. through a formal and stylistic lens. No wonder I like Hong Sang-Soo so much, his films are formal experimentations with the same plot and characters, and I snicker in cerebral satisfaction watching his playful formal variations.

Aristotle has taught me to value a new way of seeing that is the complete opposite; I wonder what this type of seeing will show me.

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